Bringing in the Tech Transport Out?
Story variant A:
A nationally know private company finds Rhode Island to be an up-and-comer with a lot of opportunity in the technology field and invests in an office and employees in the state.
Story variant B (reality):
A small, still-brand-new non-profit (i.e., tax exempt, to some extent) organization that has somehow gotten a call-out from the President of the United States receives $350,000 from the Rhode Island Dept. of Labor and Training (i.e., taxpayer money) to set up a location in the state.
What are the odds that LaunchCode‘s dominant model in Rhode Island will be to place students whose education was paid for and/or subsidized by Rhode Island taxpayers with companies that actually have technology jobs in other states? Even if that were its entire reason for coming to Rhode Island, it would be wrong to ban such a company, but forcing Rhode Islanders to lure the company here seems to be a questionable economic development decision.